A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. :shakehead: I'm going to rip apart the erroneous comparisons with all the indignation a hobbyist scholar such as myself can muster.
Just be careful lest an actual scholar arrive and express concern. Also, NB, "hobbyist scholar" is just so slightly pleonastic, considering that σχολη does actually mean "leisure" (cf. Latin's
negotium--the neg-privative of otium, leisure--meaning "business." Then, just as now, education for education's sake was, in fact, a hobby).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty and sixuality, not the god of six (that's Eros). Dibella's cults:"some are devoted to women, some to artists and aesthetics, and others to erotic instruction. She also attracts individuals who live and/or espouse an http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epicurean lifestyle."
False. Αφροδιτη is the goddess of six, and αφροδιτη as a normal noun in fact, means, six--either as a metonym of the goddess or a word in its own right (cf. Μοιρα/μοιρα in Greek, or more topically, Venus/venus in Latin--which, as Aphrodite, also can refer to grace, charm, refinement, or culture--consider the abstract noun venustas or the adjective venustus/a/um).
Don't let pop history teach you any firm dichotomies between the various attributes and associations in ancient cult and religion: things are not so cut and dry, especially with differing ritualistic traditions, adoption and assimilation of new gods at the expense of native ones, and those sorts of things. Literature makes it more complicated because of the ways various figures are used.
Dibella corresponds remarkably well to Aphrodite/Venus, actually. Many of the associations in the original post are superficial, but this one isn't one of them--the poetic construction of the goddess of love (esp. Roman Venus) fits strongly, and we have to remember that the Cyrodils
are Romans of a sort.
I do not judge intent or design on the part of the game developers. That would be silly. A philologist observes and remarks, but never speculates. Leave that to the History Channel.
Talos is a hero-god, a man-god, of the Cyrodiils. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares in general.
I'm pretty sure that Morrowind uses a single 'i' for the demonym (Cyrodils) and a double 'i' for the province (Cyrodiil). At any rate, yes, the Ares association is very silly. Talos's civic and legal aspects are similar to Athena Polias, but I would not call it a one to one correspondence, nor would I say the former is based on the latter.
However, an inspiration for Talos (if not precisely an anologue) may have been Divus Julius. The Septims would not have been too different from the Julians, really--except of course that the Julians had an impeccably Roman patrician ancestry and Tiber Septim was actually Atmoran. But inspirations do not have to be copy paste jobs.
Anyway, sorry, couldn't resist out-pedantrying a pedant.
» Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:19 pm 
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